photo by Russ Hardwick, UCLA archives
Russ Hardwick found out he graduated from UCLA while stationed at Fort Bennington, Ga., in June 1943. A postcard informed him that he had received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the university he had left a few weeks prior. There was no graduation ceremony, just a postcard.
“The Army and Navy together carried away three big school bus loads of us at the end of the May. I mean, they just gave us notice that we were going and that was it. Bang,” Hardwick said.
Hardwick was a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps student who transferred to UCLA on the cusp of American entry into the Second World War. The postcard announcing his graduation meant little at the time, and even surprised Hardwick as he had spent his final term at UCLA concentrating on more pressing matters.
“˜We knew that we were going to die in a war, I mean, we were truly convinced of that and many of us did. And I almost did,” Hardwick said. “And all of us were pretty pessimistic about it. So we started partying.”
The atmosphere in Los Angeles had been growing tense as spotlights and artillery fire opened on false Japanese air raids.
A member of Kappa Sigma, Hardwick knew that school only meant so much now. Socializing with friends on the Royce Hall steps meant enjoying UCLA before it was suddenly taken away.
“You’d be talking to a guy one day, and the next day he’d be gone, and you would hear from someone, “˜Oh yeah, he got drafted.’ … A lot of people (were) dead before we even left,” Hardwick said.
Despite the uncertain times, student life continued, and Hardwick and his buddies enjoyed the time they had around campus. Hardwick recounts one fond memory visiting his old Kappa Sigma house, which had been rented out to female students in light of the recent rise in men leaving the university for the draft.
“Just before we all left for the Army, three of us went to go visit our fraternity house, and in the bathroom, all the urinals had been planted with flowers. You could water the flowers by just pulling the lever. … Oh yeah, they had totally taken over the house,” Hardwick said.